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What would bloggers talk about?

The ME of the Modesto Bee makes a great point (via Romenesko). And it’s worth telling to all those nay-sayers who believe newspapers will completely die and citizen media will completely rule. The thing is, you can’t really have one without the other. Well, at least neither would be very good without the other.

But I pose this question: If every newspaper in America stopped publishing tomorrow, what would the bloggers have to write about?

Virulent political opinions with no basis in fact, and the riotous antics of their cats. That’s about it.

Where would the informed social dialogue come from?

If you look at what’s posted in the blogosphere, much of it is reaction to the news of the day. Bloggers link to newspaper columns and stories all the time (and we thank them for it).

That news just doesn’t fall from the sky. Reporters and editors work hard to pursue the news all over the world. Many endure hardship and danger.

It’s an interesting question, and it would sure make for an interesting experiment. If you could get every paper (and their Web sites) to go on a one-day hiatus, what would the bloggers or the TV pundits talk about?

It reminds me kind of the concept behind the Grey Day movement, which if you haven’t heard of was basically that for one day the Internet goes back to basics with no images, color, pretty fonts, HTML or CSS. (The site has disappeared it seems, but here’s a brief description of what it was.) The idea behind it was basically to raise awareness of the importance of respecting intellectual property and how if you steal art, words, music, etc. you might wake up one day and find the Internet doesn’t have any of those things.

So imagine how silent the blogosphere would be if suddenly the news media stopped producing news for it to discuss and pontificate upon.

And on a related note as to why bloggers won’t replace reporters, at least for local matters. When was the last time a blogger spent several hours standing in sub-zero temperatures with freezing water droplets raining down on her as she covered a fire? I don’t know of any who have, but I know the last time a reporter did… And it wasn’t for the glory or linkage. It was to get the story to the people who were impacted and those who wanted to know. (And it was pretty freaking cold!)

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